Public Accounts committee  It is a reduction. And people are coming and people are staying. There have been a number of people who have been with the organization for more than two years and three years.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The mandate is set out in our legislation. We exist as one body with two arms of operation. One is the acceptance, review, investigation, and reporting to Parliament of founded cases of wrongdoing. The other is the acceptance, review, and investigation of c

Public Accounts committee  Yes, it is wrongdoing as defined in the act. But the commissioner is given discretion to determine whether another more appropriate process is available. And she is, as I say, prohibited from acting if another process is actually engaged. That, plus the definition of wrongdoing,

Public Accounts committee  I would describe the environment of our office, when I arrived, as certainly an intensely focused one, an energized one. People were busy on a number of fronts, even though the act had been in place for almost a year. There was a new act, a new commissioner, a transition from a p

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I have experience in civil litigation in the aboriginal law field, in the alternative dispute resolution law field.

Public Accounts committee  We are an administrative investigation body. We do not use a criminal law standard. The purpose of an investigation under our legislation is to report on founded cases of wrongdoing and make recommendations for corrective action. In cases of reprisal, we do not have the power

Public Accounts committee  Under the legislation, Mr. Chair, we do not have criminal law jurisdiction. If we get information or discover, during the course of an investigation, that criminal activity may have occurred, we must cease that part of the investigation and refer it to the appropriate enforcement

Public Accounts committee  I joined the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner in February of 2008. I was and am on a secondment from the Department of Justice, where my substantive position is the general counsel of the alternative dispute resolution section. I've been with the Department of J

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have any information in that regard. When I joined the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, it had been in operation for almost a year at that time. With respect to its evolution or any central agency involvement in that evolution or direction, I

Public Accounts committee  I'm not aware of any formal avenues for the sharing of information about the day-to-day operations of an agent of Parliament with central agencies.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, we do have, and have had from early in our existence, legal opinions with respect to the interpretation of particular aspects of the act. We had a draft procedural guide that was produced immediately upon the coming into force of the act. We are working to supplement t

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure I can satisfactorily answer the question of how we got to where we are within the structure that exists. The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act does provide a means for complaints or disclosures about our office to go directly to the Aud

Public Accounts committee  Yes. I believe I can give that person's name. That would be Francine St-Pierre, who is a member of our executive committee. Mr. Chair, I would also like to clarify that if any current or former employee of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office wishes to come forward

Public Accounts committee  I am not aware of any outstanding ATIP requests at the moment, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  I am not aware of any such system to red flag or identify sensitive requests, Madam.